


A match made in tartarus

by WaltzQueen



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Zagreus is a little shit, passive agressive Hades, proposal joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26828509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaltzQueen/pseuds/WaltzQueen
Summary: Having matching Chairs is a couple thing to do, right?
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 303





	A match made in tartarus

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The magic of delegation in the underworld](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26745169) by [WaltzQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaltzQueen/pseuds/WaltzQueen). 



> Sequel to https://archiveofourown.org/works/26745169  
> Please read this for context.

"Alright father is this your idea of funny?"

"Perhaps so, boy. Perhaps not. Whyever do you ask?" Ah yes, the mockery is in full force. This is absolutely his idea of funny. Zagreus finds it considerably less funny.

"Look, Father. I'm glad you're happy with the changes I made last time, but I think it's going to be a while before I'm up to doing that again. You certainly don't need to prepare for me to go back to it."

"Ah, but if a place is not prepared however will you feel welcome when you assume the duties of a prince for once in your life. " Zagreus' already dimmed expression goes completely flat.

"Father, I've already done that at least the once. It would be "For twice in my life" but I can see that it doesn't sound nearly as nice to say. The point remains that this completely unnecessary." Zagreus has not seen a smile on his father's face in quite some time, but this is as close as he has come to seeing one since he got fired from the Administrative position.

"I wouldn't say that, boy. If a physical reminder of the cost of your freedom is what it takes to keep you from ransacking, destroying and otherwise causing chaos in your wake? Then I will gladly count the gems as well spent."

"A chair made of stone is not going to keep me from fighting through whatever forces you can muster father. And Master Chaos is a lovely enough person, besides."

"Not just a chair, boy. It is a Throne. Fit for a responsible, diligent, hardworking Prince." Every single one of those adjectives makes him feel like he's back up in the Temple of Styx and that Satyrs have poisoned him with their disgusting saliva flute things. The look on his face says that Hades knows it and is laughing on the inside.

Said "throne" is far smaller than Hades' freshly replaced counterpart. There's barely any room in it to squirm, shift position or even so much as lean to the side, what with its high arm rests. The back is high and straight with a lip hanging back over the top of it. Zagreus can see a red glint in it.

"As much as I appreciate your humor father, which is to say I don't. This is a waste of-Wait. Is that my bloodstone?" Zagreus uncrosses his arms just to point accusingly at the bright red rock that is leaking blood down the carefully designed engravings. The blood flows down the grooves, illustrating Zagreus himself, face down and bleeding with Varatha embedded in his back. The rivulets of blood from the carved Zagreus flow down into little red pools where Charp, Hellfish and Knucklehead fish leap on either side of Charon's boat. "Varatha? Really, Father? It couldn't be something more honorable than being killed by your own father? A Tiny Vermin perhaps? And why is it stone?"

"Yes, and now it is the throne's bloodstone. Perhaps if you cleaned your chambers properly and did not leave things simply lying about Dusa would have no need to clean them up." The prince fought back a wince. He had been certain that his father would relax with the workload of ruling the dead eased, it only figure he'd use the spare energy to make Dusa do something so pointless as to clean the room Zagreus barely spent any time in. "Stone is fitting, is it not, for one who will be beneath the stone for the rest of eternity. And honor belongs to someone who has earned it. You have earned many things boy, but honor is not among them."

"Thanks. I do try." With that bit of lovely conversation Zagreus turns on his flaming heel and dashes out the door. He can no longer run directly from his room to the Audience Chamber and to the Waiting Hall ever since he put in these renovations, but it's worth it to not see his father scoff every time he dies trying to get out. The other person malcontent with his renovations is staring out at the Styx. Zagreus dashes towards the quiet god calling out "Than!" with no little joy.

"Hello Zagreus, how is the escape going? Better or worse than the paperwork?"

"Well, it certainly gets the blood pumping and I'm not trapped in one place being forced to cool my heels. Plus I get to chat with Lernie a bit more regularly, so I'd say better."

"Lernie?"

"Lernerian Bone Hydra. Lernie for short."

"Are you attached to the hydra that regularly tries to kill you unless you kill it?"

"What can I say, Than? I love making new friends." Thanatos' minuscule smile is teasing and sweet.

"You understand that that you can can talk to 'Lernie' without having to destroy it if you go there as its Prince, right? Or is that part of the appeal?" Zagreaus can't even attempt to keep the smile from his face as he loops his arm around his lover.

"You know how it is, Than. No one wants to be informal with their boss." Thanatos doesn't sling a matching arm over Zagreus' shoulders, instead he settles his feet on the floor to lean in to the prince's embrace.

"You're informal with Lord Hades every time you see him. Even I am not quite so loose with my own mother."

"The trick with us is we've given up all hope of respect from one another. It really clears the air. I would not personally recommend it for you and Nyx, though. You seem to have your own thing going and I think it's working wonderfully." Zagreus presses his lips just under Thanatos' jaw. It's barely a peck but the answering grey toned blush is endearing. Zagreus does it again and again, a flurry of flirtatious smooches. The two gods are so wrapped up in each other that they fail to notice the curious stares from gossip-mongering shades.

"Excuse me, old man, the what now?" Zagreus tears his eyes away at the prompting of the narrator to find a good twenty shades having each forgone their work to watch the canoodling couple at the balcony. "Err, yeah. Sorry Than, let's take this elsewhere."

His arm ceases to be slung around any shoulder. His hip is nestled close to no other hip. Thanatos has already vanished, leaving behind cold, darkness and a romantically frustrated God.

"Right, lack of privacy in this hall now." He darts away from the voyeuristic souls of the departed. Since he feels like dying of embarrassment he might as well go die of something else. "Back to it, then."

"It's unlike you to lay still this long, Zag. Did I wear you out that much?" Thanatos tucks his head into Zagreus' neck, simply feeling the heat radiating off of him. For the moment the cold hand of death is warm with the last remnants of a feverish energy.

"If you're willing to go another round I'm up for it, though I imagine you'll have to do most of the work. but I freely admit I'd rather be still for you than for anything else."

"You do seem to hate being still. I never understood it completely. Moving has its own appeal, but I can enjoy resting every so often."

"I suppose it's different when you don't get to have a say in it. The Fates do keep you very busy." Thanatos nods in languorous agreement." As for me, Father wants me to stay down here forever. It's a matter of perspective." Thanatos settles his hand over Zag's heart, enjoying the feeling of the heart beating beneath his fingers. "It seems he wants me to stay put so badly he has designed a shackle for me and carved my name into it. Well, my body actually. Face down with his blade in my back."

"I saw it in the Audience Chamber, Zagreus. To imagine, you, who were once fired from administrative duties, would receive a throne from your Lord Father." The tone is even but Zagreus knows Thanatos well enough to hear laughter beneath it. At least Hypnos wears his amusement on the outside and gets it over with.

"Than, he expects me to go back to doing that often enough to need a throne of my own." The groan he emits is one of endless exasperation. Thanatos feels it rumbling in Zag's throat and into his own chest to shake his heart right to its very core. "Did he forget about the Administrative Offices before hand? Have the misfiled reports, badly transcribed catalogs of prisoners and constant berating about not showing up on time flee his mind? Was he really that impressed with the pamphlet and the Judgement Criteria? Anyone could have thought of that."

"But none did but you, Zag." Thanatos pushes himself up to look down at Zagreus as he lay exposed beneath him. He is still flush with exertion. Pink and red where his skin gave hints at the blood underneath gripping bruises and rough teeth marks. Aphrodite could not have done a better job herself. He would probably die for saying that if he were mortal but he's not and he doesn't need her blessings because he has everything he could ever want right here. "Look. I know you hate it. I also find there are drawbacks to my work. But I am the only one who can do it in this way. You are the only one who can do things in your way."

"Really, Thanatos. Is this the time to be extracting promises about me pulling my weight around the House?" Thanatos leans down to feel the life radiating off of Zagreus. Their foreheads touch gently, as if exchanging thoughts without the medium of words.

"I am not pushing you to do anything you do not want to. I just want you to know that you are capable, Zag. If no one else sees that, I see that. And I will always respect your input and ideas as much as your hot blooded spirit."  
Thanatos isn't unprepared when the prince's arms reach up to ensnare him as their gentle intimacy turns heated yet again. "How's this for an idea, Than?" Zagreus rolls his hips against Thanatos' once.

"A wonderful idea, Zag. Let's expand on this further."

Zagreus sees the rock chair-because he refuses to acknowledge that thing as his throne- occasionally when he enters the Audience Chamber to tweak his father's nose a bit or eavesdrop on which member of the house is being shouted down. It's tucked against the mural, same as his mother's chair was. Only the chair matching his father's is now situated at the desk, holding a plethora of codexes and files just out of sight of the shades. Seeing the rock chair alone stirs something in him that clings unpleasantly to the inside of his ribs like a broken spear tip. It catches his attention like a hangnail on cloth and he tries to look past it, both as an uncomfortable confinement device and as a symbol of the horrors of endless repetition. He fails at it the same way he failed at filing in the Admin Office: repeatedly and pointedly. It is only when Thanatos comments on Zagreus' distraction by it when Zagreus burst in on Hades berating Death Incarnate for helping Zagreus in Asphodel that the god of blood is struck with inspiration so potent he has the impulse to gift Eurydice some Ambrosia.

"So, Contractor! Would you happen to know where that fancy seat my father had made for me came from? Because I have a commission for the shade that made it. No price is too high."

"Zagreus, what is this?"

"It's a seat, Than. I know you spend most of your time hovering but I know you've sat down before." As is often the case the young god cannot keep the smile from his lips.  
The seat in question is made of bones primarily. Femurs and tibias inlaid with gold are nestled close, strands of Dark tying them together to form legs and a high, straight back. The top is decorated with skulls, naturally. One has a butterfly carved of amethyst resting lightly on it, seemingly run through with a crystalline pin. On the seat of the chair rests a cushion embroidered with scythes crossed over an hourglass.

It is a throne fit for a god. And Zagreus's smile over Thanto's flabbergasted reaction is the definition of 'Shit Eating Grin.'

"Zagreus, you know I rarely have time to linger in the House. Why would you go through the trouble of having this made?"

"Well, you're busy, sure, Than. But you deserve something nicer and slightly less illicit than Ambrosia. Besides, you kept me company That One Month. I figure If I ever need to make the same exchange, it would look just silly for me to have a fancy chair and you to not have your own, you know." The Prince's grin changes as he goes on from a prankster's successful glee to something more quiet and tender but no less sincere.

"Mother tells me your father had those thrones made for himself and your mother after their marriage, Zag. Should I take this as a proposal?"

"A Proposal! I didn't mean it like-not that I wouldn't love to, Thanatos. I'd be overjoyed but yo-"Thanatos' laugh cuts off the prince's panicked rambling. He was joking. Zagreus cant help but laugh with Thanatos instead of being annoyed or continuing to babble.

"I know you weren't intending that, Zag. You're not likely to settle down until you've spent more time with your mother, that is if you ever settle. But I'll freely be your partner in bureaucracy should you feel the need to heed its call. Everything else can wait for now."

"Everything Than? Do I have to wait for a kiss as well?" The Prince draws close to Death Incarnate with an exaggerated pout on his face. Thanatos is hard pressed not to roll his eyes with affectionate exasperation.

"We'll just have to see." The insincere pout falls into actual disappointment at the words. But Hermes' trickster nature has been rubbing off on Thanatos just a bit because he takes that moment to swoop in and lay a gentle peck on Zag's cheek, He's gone before the prince can reach up to try and embrace him. Even so he knows exactly what face Zagreus is making, left alone with his single kiss. Maybe Hermes was on to something with this whole 'prank' thing. Any further pranks will have to wait. Death waits no man and the Fates don't wait for Death to be done flirting.


End file.
